Chen Wenjun:
Thank you, Mr. Xu. The Q&A session starts now. Please identify the news outlet you work for before raising a question. We have many journalists from other countries here, and questions asked in English will be interpreted into Chinese on the spot. Please start your questions now.
People's Daily:
China upholds the CPC's overall leadership, especially the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee. What is the relationship between upholding the leadership of the CPC and whole-process people's democracy? Thank you.
Tian Peiyan:
The essence of the leadership of the CPC is to uphold and ensure the people's status as masters of the country. "Whole-process people's democracy is a creation of the CPC in leading the people to pursue, develop and realize democracy, embodying the Party's innovation in advancing China's democratic theories, systems and practices." Developing whole-process people's democracy can ensure the CPC leadership more effectively. We can say that upholding the CPC leadership is highly consistent with developing whole-process people's democracy, with the two reinforcing and complementing each other.
On the one hand, upholding the CPC leadership is the fundamental guarantee for whole-process people's democracy. The CPC represents the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, without any special interests of its own, and never represents the interests of any interest groups, powerful groups, or privileged elites. It stands firmly with the people and relies closely on the people to create history. In such a vast country with a population of more than 1.4 billion from 56 ethnic groups, if we were without the CPC leadership, especially the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, or if we implemented the so-called "democracy" in the West, it would be easy to become destabilized and fall into chaos, and democracy would inevitably reverse. Only by upholding the CPC leadership can we guarantee the right direction of democracy and ensure that people administer state affairs and manage economic and cultural undertakings and social affairs through various channels and in various ways in accordance with the law.
On the other hand, developing whole-process people's democracy is the intrinsic requirement of upholding the CPC leadership. Developing whole-process people's democracy can pool people's wisdoms and strengths into the cause of the CPC and the state, build stronger public support for the CPC leadership, make the policymaking of the CPC more reasonable, and implement the theories, lines, principles, and policies of the CPC in a more thorough and vigorous way. Thank you.
